HOW THE WILL REGULATES THE SENSE APPETITE[1]
The will, then, Theotimus, rules over memory, intelligence and imagination not by force but by authority. Hence, it is not always obeyed unfailingly, just as the head of a family is not always obeyed by his children and servants. It is the same too as regards sense appetite. St. Augustine says that it is called concupiscence in us sinners. It remains subject to the will and the spirit as a woman to her husband. Thus it was told to the woman: you shall return to your husband and he will rule over you (Gen 3:16); so also Cain was told that his desire would return to him and he should master it (Gen 4:7). To return to the husband means nothing else but to submit and be subject to him. “O man", says St. Bernard, “if you wish, it is in your power to make your enemy your servant so that everything turns to your well-being: Your appetite is under you and you will control it. Your enemy can arouse in you feelings of temptation. But if you wish you can give or refuse consent."
If you allow your appetite to lead you into sin, then you will be subject to it. It will subdue you because whoever commits sin, is a slave ofsin (Jn 8:34). Before you commit sin, as long as you have not given your consent to sin, it is only in your feeling. It means that still sin is in your sense appetite and not in your will; your sense appetite is under you and you can master it.
Before an emperor is chosen, he is subject to the electors. They have power over him. They can choose him for the imperial dignity or reject him. But once he is elected and raised to the office by them, they are subject to him immediately and he rules over them. Before the will consents to the sense appetite, it has power over it; but once the consent is given, then it becomes its slave.
In short, this sense appetite is indeed a rebellious, treacherous, turbulent subject. We have to acknowledge that we do not know how to undo it to such an extent that it never rises again and attempts to attack reason. All the same, the will is so powerful over the sense appetite that, if it wishes, it can put it down, shatter its plans and repel it. Hence it is enough to reject it so that we do not consent to its suggestions. We cannot prevent concupiscence from becoming pregnant with sin. But certainly, we can prevent it from bringing sin to birth, and from translating suggestion into sin (Jas 1:15).
Now this concupiscence or sense appetite has twelve movements like, mutinous captains. Through them, it stirs up rebellion in man. Usually, they disturb the soul and agitate the body. Following St. Augustine, we call them emotions in so far as they disturb the soul, and passions in so far as they make the body restless. All these are related to good or evil, seeking to acquire what is good or avoid what is evil. If the good is considered in itself in its natural goodness, it arouses love, the first and principal passion. If the good is perceived as absent from us, it causes desire in us for it. If we think that we are able to get the desired good, in the thought of it as attainable, we feel hope. If we think that it is impossible to get it, we feel despair. But when we actually possess it, it causes joy.
On the contrary, as soon as we recognize an evil, we hate it. If it is not present, we avoid it. If we think that we cannot avoid it, fear takes hold of us. If we think that we can avoid it, we grow bold and take courage. If we feel that the evil is close to us, we become sad; suddenly anger and fury rush to repel and cast away the evil or at least to take revenge. If we are not able to do it, we remain in sorrow. If we repel it or avenge it, we feel calmness and satisfaction which is the taste of victory. For as the possession of what is good gladdens the heart, so too victory over evil satisfies a courageous spirit.
Over all this crowd of sense-passions, the will holds its dominion, rejecting their suggestions, repelling their attacks, preventing their effects. If nothing else can be done, the will vigorously refuses its consent without which these passions cannot do any harm. By this refusal of consent, they remain conquered and indeed, in the long run, they are worn out, weakened, quelled and crushed and, if not fully dead, at least mortified and deadened.
This crowd of passions is left in us, Theotimus, so that our will may practise virtue and spiritual courage. So the Stoics, who denied the existence of passions in a wise man, were very much mistaken. In fact, what they denied in words, they practised in deeds, as this interesting story narrated by St. Augustine shows. Aulus Gellius[2] was on board a ship with a famous Stoic. A great tempest arose. The Stoic got frightened, began to grow pale, white and to tremble so visibly that all those who were on the boat saw it. They noticed it with surprise, even though they were in the same danger as he. In the meanwhile, the sea became calm. There was no more danger. This assurance gave them the freedom to chat and even to make fun of each other. A humorous Asiatic laughed at the Stoic. He taunted him for getting frightened, for becoming shaken and pale at the danger; on the contrary, he himself had remained courageous without fright. To this, the Stoic quoted Aristippus, a Socratic philosopher who, stung by the same reproach for the same reason, retorted: “You wicked scoundrel, you are right in not caring for your worthless life. But I would be wrong if I were not to fear the loss of the life of the Aristippus that I am." The value of this story is that it is told to us by Aulus Gellius, who was an eye-witness. As for the reply, the Stoic has his prompt wit in his favour, but not his cause. By referring to a companion in his fear, he provided two unquestionable witnesses who proved that Stoics were subject to fear. Fear exerts its effects on the eyes and face and so it is a passion.
It is utter foolishness to seek to be wise with an impossible wisdom. The Church indeed has condemned the folly of this wisdom, which some self-conceited hermits sought to introduce long ago. The whole of Scripture, above all the great Apostle, cries out that we have a law in our body which is contrary to the law of our spirit (Rom 7.23). “Among us Christians", said St. Augustine, “according to Sacred Scriptures and sacred doctrine, the citizens of the Holy City of God on pilgrimage in this world, living in union with God, fear, desire, feel sorrow and rejoice." Yes, indeed, the sovereign King of this city experienced fear, desire, joy. He felt so much grief that he wept, grew pale, trembled, sweated blood, though these movements in him were not passions like ours. The great St Jerome and after him the scholastic theologians do not dare to call them passions due to veneration for the person in whom they existed. So they term them respectfully as pro-passions. It shows that the sense movements in our Lord took the place of passions though they were not passions. He did not feel the distress or suffer anything whatever from them except what seemed good to him and as it pleased him. He ruled them and used them as he liked. We sinners are not able to do it. We suffer and feel distress at these disorderly movements against our wishes with great detriment to the welfare and peace of our souls.
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[1] Sense appetite and concupiscence are common terms used by St. Francis de Sales to indicate the disorderly passions and emotions in the human person.
[2] A second century latin author who wrote Attic Nights giving many anecdotes.